From the Upshot, Nate Cohn on how the Obama coalition crumbled, leaving an opening for Trump. The lists told us otherwise: Daniel Schlozman on the Democratic collapse and the ascent of Trumpism. Hillary Clinton really shouldn't have told voters that Trump wasn't a normal Republican. It's not about the economy: In an increasingly polarized country, even economic progress can't get voters to abandon their partisan allegiance. Don't blame technology: Russian hackers were able to interfere in the US election not because of Internet technology as such, but because of public receptivity to anti-establishment messages. Americans — especially but not exclusively Trump voters — believe crazy, wrong things.

500 years on, are we living in Thomas More’s Utopia? In a utopian future, what counts as luxury? Ben Sullivan wonders. Is humanity getting better? Our new global crises are so challenging because the bads are so tightly bound up with the goods. Max Roser on proof that life is getting better for humanity, in 5 charts. Everything is (still) awesome: Maybe the message didn’t break through, but things continue to be pretty great — and getting better — in America. What today’s movements for social and economic reform can learn from the intentional communities of the nineteenth century: Akash Kapur reviewsUtopia Drive: A Road Trip Through America’s Most Radical Idea by Erik Reece and Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism by Chris Jennings. Utopia: Michael Caines on nine of the most miserable attempts to create idealised societies.